[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1116 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1116

      To require the approval of a majority of a public company's 
 shareholders for any expenditure by that company to influence public 
 opinion on matters not related to the company's products or services.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 13, 2013

 Mr. Grayson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To require the approval of a majority of a public company's 
 shareholders for any expenditure by that company to influence public 
 opinion on matters not related to the company's products or services.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``End the Hijacking of Shareholder 
Funds Act''.

SEC. 2. SHAREHOLDER APPROVAL FOR CERTAIN EXPENDITURES.

    Any expenditure by a public company to influence public opinion on 
matters not related to the company's products or services that has not 
been approved by a majority of the votes cast by shareholders to 
approve or disapprove such expenditure shall be considered a breach of 
a fiduciary duty of the officers and directors who authorized such an 
expenditure. The officers and directors who authorize such an 
expenditure without first obtaining such approval of shareholders shall 
be jointly and severally liable in any action brought in any court of 
competent jurisdiction to any shareholder or class of shareholders for 
the amount of such expenditure.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act--
            (1) the term ``public company'' means any issuer that is 
        required to submit periodical or other reports under section 13 
        of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m); and
            (2) the term ``shareholder'' means any person who owns or 
        holds a share of stock in a public company.
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